Wednesday, 8 May 2013

DOHA After the recent tremors felt in the country, Qatar needs to revise its building standard code, Qatar Steel Projects Division Manager Khalid Butt said, in Doha, on Tuesday. “We need to find a solution to corrosion. High quality fusion bonded epoxy coating on the black bars is one solution which not only increases the life of buildings but also saves them from tremors,” Butt said.

Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company CEO Abdul Rahman A al Ansari said, “The use of these bars is gaining momentum and we hope that it will be used in Qatar on a large scale.” (TNN)

NOT a week goes by without the North Korean regime appearing to commit a fresh outrage. This time it is an American tour guide, Kenneth Bae, sentenced to 15 years of hard labour. And for what? Last month we were being threatened with nuclear war by a 30-year-old despot with a bad haircut. It's no wonder the Western media tends to fall back on cliches. "Mad, bad and sad!" A "hermit kingdom" peopled by "brainwashed masses." I am guilty of using a few myself. The images we see from Pyongyang tend to reinforce those cliches. Massed ranks of soldiers goose-stepping across Kim Il-sung Square in perfect unison ...

THE opponents of immigration reform have many small complaints, but they really have one core concern. It's about control. America doesn't control its borders. Past reform efforts have not established control. Current proposals wouldn't establish effective control. But the opponents rarely say what exactly it is they are trying to control. They talk about border security and various mechanisms to achieve that, but they rarely go into detail about what we should be so vigilant about restricting. I thought I would spell it out. First, immigration opponents are effectively trying to restrict the flow of conservatives ...

Italian trade agency to open Doha office

DOHA Italy will open the office of Italian Trade Commission at the Italian embassy in Doha on June 1, Italian Ambassador to Qatar HE Guido de Sanctis said. The office will strengthen the presence of Italian small and medium enterprises in Qatar, the envoy said. The ICE-Italian Trade Promotion Agency (Italian Trade Commission) is the government organisation which assists firms in going global. (TNN)

DOHA Ashghal has announced the closure of Al Gasar Roundabout, parts of the roads leading to it and Lusail Street opposite the Doha Exhibition Center (DEC), from May 9. The exercise is part of the continuing Lusail Expressway project.

However, Ashghal will open a 2- km temporary dual road parallel opposite the DEC, to ensure free flow of traffic. The new alternative road consists of three lanes in each direction. (TNN)

DOHA CHAIRMAN of MJR Communication Group Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa bin Sultan al Thani has said that “building and construction projects in Qatar have a purpose.

Describing such buildings as empty or having no-takers is inaccurate”.

Speaking on the sidelines of the first international Man and Architecture (MA) conference on Tuesday, Sheikh Jassim said: “Businessmen know what they are doing. They are not investing for nothing. We have faced difficulties while hosting the Asian Games in 2006.

“We couldn’t accommodate a large number of guests and visitors at that time. So, we are trying to avoid a similar problem during the World Cup – which is by far one of the biggest sporting events – by keeping the required number of buildings ready.” Sheikh Jassim further said: “We expect the value of investments in Doha in the next nine years to be around $600 billion.

The increase in the number of properties in Doha will make the real estate sector more competitive.” Earlier, global experts shared their views on architecture, technology, design, green construction, vision and communication.

Renowned German architect Prof Albert Speer of AS&P Frankfurt presented his own analysis of architecture in Doha during an interactive session with MA founder Michael Rennschmied.

On why Qatar was building “empty buildings”, Speer said that there is little information about how many people will move to Qatar in the near future.

“I think it is part of a strategic and political thinking, but I can advise our friends in this country not to look too much elsewhere and focus on Qatar’s own historical past.”

DOHA THE stage is set for holding general elections and electing people’s representatives in Pakistan on May 11.

However, while the Pakistani Diaspora in Qatar looks forward to the exercise with anticipation, the one thing that piques them is inability to exercise their franchise.

Despite the Supreme Court’s efforts to allow expatriate Pakistanis to vote, it is unfair of the government to ignore them in the process of elections, they feel.

These elections gain even more importance because for the first time in the history of Pakistan an elected government is going to complete its term and the ensuing elections will mark the all-important transition between democratically elected governments.

The major parties in the fray are Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. While the first two have alternately governed the country for some time now, poll pundits say international cricketerturned- politician Imran Khan’s PTI has become a force to reckon with this time around.

DOHA HER Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has announced new programmes aimed at offering students more academic choices and allowing them to diversify their specialisation.

She was speaking at the Qatar Foundation (QF) convocation ceremony for the year 2013.

QF students will soon be able to take up majors in one university while reading a minor at another. The first cross-registration will be between Northwestern University in Qatar (NUQ) and Georgetown University- School of Foreign Services in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) for Journalism & Political Sciences.

She also announced three new degrees within Hamad bin Khalifa University namely, Executive Masters in Energy and Resources, a Masters in Library and Information Studies, and an Academic Research and Methods certificate programme.

HH Sheikha Moza urged the 437 graduates, “Remember do not always accept reality as it is. You must accept challenges. You must engage in dialogue.

You should also bridge the gap between the present and the future.

Formidable challenges await you.

This is your role after all”.

At the ceremony, held at Qatar National Convention Centre, HH Sheikha Moza reminded the class of 2013 and the future leaders of Qatar, comprising 229 women and 208 men, to continue giving high regard to knowledge and spread such virtue beyond the walls of their universities.